Hba1c readings

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Thebixby8

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Type 2
Somewhat of a newbie and just wanted to ask something,diagnosed in July type 2 with a high Hba1c of 121.
On Metformin and have stuck to a reasonable low carb diet my november blood test came back at 41.
Saw a diabetic nurse this morning who took a blood test which also came back as 41 and her comment to me was"it's not good but not bad either"
Is it just me who thinks that comment is somewhat understated as I thought I was doing really well to get down to that level and it made me feel a little deflated.
 
You have done absolutely brilliantly and that nurse is clearly very poor at her job, which is to support and encourage you. 41 is in the normal range (not even prediabetic).... what more does she want!!
Many congratulations on an amazing reduction in HbA1c and then the harder bit of maintaining it. Good luck going forward and don't let than nurse rain on your parade. You deserve to be incredibly proud of yourself. Only people here really know how much hard work and discipline managing diabetes well involves and I am sure everyone will be impressed with your fantastic results. WELL DONE!
 
Thebixby8 said:
Somewhat of a newbie and just wanted to ask something,diagnosed in July type 2 with a high Hba1c of 121.
On Metformin and have stuck to a reasonable low carb diet my november blood test came back at 41.
Saw a diabetic nurse this morning who took a blood test which also came back as 41 and her comment to me was"it's not good but not bad either"
Is it just me who thinks that comment is somewhat understated as I thought I was doing really well to get down to that level and it made me feel a little deflated.
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The nurse is an idiot, I would refuse to see her again.

41 is excellent, especially from 121.
Absolutely brilliant. Well done.
 
Thank you for the kind replies it was just what I needed to hear.
I'm 53 and have been lucky up til now that I've never spent much time with medical professionals so I don't feel confident enough to call them out on anything and just listen and digest the information.
 
That's amazing work well done. My experience with medical professionals is varied, so you are right to asked the community here. Thankfully my nurse has just changed to one who is all over it. My last one didn't even bother to tell me when I had dropped from 100 to 42. I have to log on and find the results myself. I find this chart useful to interpret my results. It puts you well in the 'Excellent' range https://www.diabetes.co.uk/forum/threads/hba1c-conversion-table.51014/
 
Thebixby8 said:
Somewhat of a newbie and just wanted to ask something,diagnosed in July type 2 with a high Hba1c of 121.
On Metformin and have stuck to a reasonable low carb diet my november blood test came back at 41.
Saw a diabetic nurse this morning who took a blood test which also came back as 41 and her comment to me was"it's not good but not bad either"
Is it just me who thinks that comment is somewhat understated as I thought I was doing really well to get down to that level and it made me feel a little deflated.
Click to expand...
I can undersrand you feeling deflated I would as well.
 
Thebixby8 said:
Saw a diabetic nurse this morning who took a blood test which also came back as 41 and her comment to me was"it's not good but not bad either"
Click to expand...

Well frankly I am absolutely staggered by that response! As I was reading your post there is no way on earth I expected the sentence to veer off in that direction!?

I also cannot for the life of me understand the “not good, but not bad either” comment.

I don’t know if you are currently taking medication, but if not the authors of DIRECT would most likely consider you to be well into remission, which seems very good indeed from an HbA1c in three figures in the summer!
 
Well - I'm not often at a loss for words, but - wow.
 
Congratulations @Thebixby8! What a brilliant result. As others have said, ignore the comment from the nurse.
 
That's fantastic, well done you. Your nurse must have trained with mine!!! My GP is worse, he just hands out tablets and says keep going!!!!!!
 
Thebixby8 said:
Somewhat of a newbie and just wanted to ask something,diagnosed in July type 2 with a high Hba1c of 121.
On Metformin and have stuck to a reasonable low carb diet my november blood test came back at 41.
Saw a diabetic nurse this morning who took a blood test which also came back as 41 and her comment to me was"it's not good but not bad either"
Is it just me who thinks that comment is somewhat understated as I thought I was doing really well to get down to that level and it made me feel a little deflated.
Click to expand...
Diabetic Nurse is a job at the end of the day and you will find some that don't do a brilliant job. Also, the diabetic nurse may not be aware how she comes over to others when making such comments. As many people are not that self aware. You are clearly doing an excellent job by anyone's standards.
 
The Bixby that is a brilliant result and fantastic reduction and let know one else tell you otherwise.
I knew my Hba1c was in 3 figures in late July but only found out it was 120 yesterday on a Drs appointment. I have not been tested since and can only get an indicative prediction off the Libre which is showing 43 but until I get the real figure which is likely to be much higher then I simply don’t know.
I can tell you my DSN is very pleased with my efforts and I am getting TIR levels of 100/99/98/98 for 7/14/28 and 90 days respectively so really not sure how you can improve that by much.
So your achievement is tremendous and you actually have the hard evidence whilst I can only hope.
so really well done.
 
All I can say is my sugar consumption(biscuits,cakes,deserts,beer)used to be massive before being diagnosed in July and it has been zero since even though my carb count per day is not super low(100 - 120 per day roughly)it seems to be working for me so far
 
Thebixby8 said:
All I can say is my sugar consumption(biscuits,cakes,deserts,beer)used to be massive before being diagnosed in July and it has been zero since even though my carb count per day is not super low(100 - 120 per day roughly)it seems to be working for me so far
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When people go lower than that on carb intake it is usually by experimentation and being guided by their monitor as to what their body can tolerate so if that is what suits you and is working then stick with it.
I went as low as 70g straight off which was a bit of a mistake to do it so quickly as I had problems with my eyes which I only learned from reading on here that it could happen with too quick a drop in blood glucose.
 
That's interesting because my eyes have got worse recently and currently having treatment(laser and injections which isn't fun!)I'll have to look into that,thanks
 
@Thebixby8 as others have said really great result, so well done and it's good to hear about successful results.

Wendal said:
..... and can only get an indicative prediction off the Libre which is showing 43 but until I get the real figure which is likely to be much higher then I simply don’t know.
I can tell you my DSN is very pleased with my efforts and I am getting TIR levels of 100/99/98/98 for 7/14/28 and 90 days respectively so really not sure how you can improve that by much.
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@Wendal your TIR stats are also extremely impressive and I can only dream about achieving those! But I think the real figure for you is NOT that next HBA1c. Apart from CGM optimism influencing false stats - TIR is in my opinion way more real than a blood test that is counting residuals over a 3 month period. Those residuals could well have come from many hypos and many hypers, averaging out to a terrific HBA1c - which without the truth from CGM TIR would never be apparent.

My Consultant, who is the Head of the Endo Dep't is far more interested in my TIR achievements, than he is in the succession of HBA1c results. I could be wrong, but think TIR is becoming the new benchmark for assessing my BG management; but that is not yet the NHS and NICE Guidance solely because, I think, not everyone has CGM and thus not got TIRs. I think we are in a transition phase thanks to the significant improved availability of CGM and I think TIR will replace HBA1C in the nearish future for all those who are insulin dependent, leaving that small number who don't choose to have CGM with HBA1C as their best representation of their BG management.

Alas @Thebixby8 you might not see this as a T2. But you shouldn't need this anyway if your fabulous recent improvement becomes a clear move into being in remission!
 
Thanks for kind words Roland.
I saw a recent post from someone else about new US research indicating that TIR was a much better benchmark and it does make more sense as you say than Hba1c that could be an “ average” between relative highs and lows which are more indicative of less control of a lot of variance and volatility.
As you say many Type 2s like The Bixby may not have CGMs so are unaware of theTIR aspect and yes my next Hba1c is more out of curiosity than anything else.
 
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